Perhaps if we all step back and reconsider the use of quotation marks...

The social practice of learning (learning being another word that is 
typically placed in scare quotes) or sense-making (also used in quotes) 
in the museum which Darryl describes in the first full paragraph below 
is not the same as bringing people who are normally outside the 
curatorial process into that process, is it? (I think obviously not.)

In any event, that social practice proceeds based on the prior 
experience of the group: within the peer group, parent-child, 
teacher-pupil (we wish), etc. but is mediated and directed by the 
interpretation provided by the museum in the form of label copy, guide 
books, docents, explainers, etc. (And that content is all directed by 
curators or other specialists.)

I have read the current discussion about 'community curators' to mean 
bringing other voice (not now within the museum structure) into the 
process - which of course means recognizing those community curators' 
legitimacy in the process - of creating the narratives for those 
instruments of mediation.

Some of what Darryl describes in the second paragraph seems to relieve 
the museum from actual responsibility in that process, albeit in the 
name of individual autonomy.

How can "offering a recording/downloading site upon entering the 
museum" represent a truly inclusionary approach or a reinterpretation 
of the museum? Which communities are you seeking to include through 
this approach? Which communities will you continue to exclude if this 
is as far as it goes?


I note that according to the US NEA, the majority of museum visitors 
are college educated and earn more than $50,000 pa. However, 
approximately 70% of adults do not now visit museums in any given year. 
  I would guess that the number of people who do not own an iPod or 
similar device is well above 90%.

The 'iPod solution' ensures that the upper middle class continues to be 
the favored audience for museums, doesn't it?

-L.D.


On Mar 5, 2006, at 11:06 AM, Darryl MacKenzie wrote:

> Thank you Jeremy, but who is to say that 'unauthorized' tours don't 
> already
> occur, and have for the entire history of museums?
>
> Person A brings her family to the museum, and rather than take a tour 
> with
> someone 'authorized' to give tours, leads her children through the 
> museum,
> telling them about her views on the objects. She relates to them 
> stories
> about her grandmother who helped make the butter on the family farm. 
> She
> tells about her grandmother's youth, and how she used to climb trees 
> where
> the local mall now stands. A few months later, her husband takes the
> children through the same museum. His stories and how he relates to the
> collection is going to be different than his wife's. The children each 
> will
> synthesize the two presentations into their own unique method of 
> interaction
> with the collection, which they will share with their classmates at 
> future
> visits to the museum.
>
> I can see museums offering a recording/downloading site upon entering 
> the
> museum eventually. Who cares if the tour is 'authorized'? Who gives 
> museum
> professionals the right to say they are the only people with valid 
> views
> about the meaning of the collection? The curator is there to 
> facilitate the
> community's discussion around its history and culture, not 
> indoctrinate what
> the community's beliefs about their past should be. How can a curator, 
> who
> might often come from outside the community, say that they have a 
> better
> understanding of the community's past and tell them how they should be
> relating to that past? I suppose my views about museums are different 
> in
> that I see them as a community space for sharing stories. They are the 
> place
> where the community can develop a shared sense of identity, and the 
> more
> safe the community feels in being able to share those thoughts, the 
> more
> healthy the community becomes as it faces common problems in the 
> future.
>
> Darryl
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On 
> Behalf
> Of Jeremy
> Sent: March 5, 2006 2:00 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] "community curators"
>
> --- Darryl MacKenzie <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> A type of community curatorship that I have heard
>> about as well is the use
>> of iPods as interpretive tour guides through a
>> museum.
>
> These links all relate to 'unauthorized' audio guides
> of museum collections. They are mostly about
> interpretation by 'outsiders' rather than
> collaboration between curators and others.
>
> The initial hype about this started last year, however
> a big problem is that users need to download the
> recording before visiting the museum, and it seems
> that very few are organized enough to do this. The
> idea doesn't seem to have taken off yet.
>
> Network technologies will in the future mean that
> unauthorized guides will be downloadable to phones or
> PDA's while in the museum (linked to the museums
> location via GPS) which should make them much more
> accessible.
>

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).